CMA CGM reshuffles three Baltic Feeders

The 694 teu CONMAR GULF, to be deployed on the new butterfly / Credit: Ulf Kornfeld

The French Line CMA CGM is to revise the port rotations of three of its eleven North Europe to Baltic services. The changes applied to the carrier’s feeder network can be summarized as follows:

‘BALT7’ service, a.k.a. ‘FAS Kaliningrad’: Calls at Zeebrugge, Kaliningrad and Klaipeda are removed. A new call at Kronstadt in the Saint Petersburg area is introduced. The revised rotation reads: Hamburg, Kronstadt, Norrkoping, Rauma, Gavle, Hamburg. The service continues to offer weekly sailings on a two week round trip – a rebranding should be on order, since Kaliningrad is no longer served. The changes will be applied in early September.

‘FAS Danbot’: Fredericia and Kronstadt are removed. The revised rotation reads: Hamburg, Copenhagen, Halmstad, Szczecin, Hamburg. The service, which presently employs two ships and which offers sailings every three to four days, will shift down to a weekly frequency. The loop will be maintained with one 700 teu vessel instead of the present two. The changes will be applied in early September.

‘FAS Klaipeda’: the weekly Poland and Lithuania feeder evolves into a Hamburg-centered butterfly with the addition of a Hamburg, Zeebrugge, Kaliningrad, Klaipeda, Hamburg leg. The new butterfly offers weekly sailings on each wing with a fleet two feeder ships. Changes on this loop become effective in Mid-September.

From a fleet employment point of view, the above modifications do not trigger any major changes. All in, the same number of vessels are employed. Despite the adapted port rotations, the overall port coverage remains essentially unchanged, with the exception of Fredericia, which is dropped from the ‘FAS Danbot’ but not added to any other service. The port however remains connected to German main port of Hamburg via CMA CGM’s ‘Femex Scandinavia’ service.

On top of the four aforementioned loops, CMA CGM continues to offer unchanged connections between the European northern range and the Baltic Sea region by means of the below services:

Rotterdam to Norway

Hamburg to Poland and Finland, in cooperation with Team Lines

Hamburg to Sweden and Latvia

no fewer than four St Petersburg shuttles, thereof three CMA CGM operated and one operated by FESCO